Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Hey, I got a game in yesterday with my Ork list here. I went up against my buddy Zach's Vulkan marines. Zach's a great guy, but his dice seem to hate him when I'm around :P

Here's an approximation of his list.

Vulkan

2 MM/HF Dreads, 1 in a Drop Pod

7 Legion of the Damned, power weapon, plasma cannon, plasma gun

2 MM/F/PW Tac Squads, 1 in a Drop Pod, 1 in a Rhino

2 4 man Bike Squadrons with AB, melta/flamer, power weapon

1 long MM Attack Bike

Vindicator

LRC

Obviously it's not an optimized list, but Vulkan still worries me since meltas fuck battlewagons up like crazy, and boosted flamers are never good for Orks.

We ended up playing Spearhead deployment Seize Ground. From here on I will describe the board from my POV, so left, right, top and bottom are consistent. Most objectives were placed in the middle strung out in a line going left to right. One of each was in a corner, top left and bottom right.

I won the roll off and deployed first, because I wanted to get my Bikers boosting early so I could survive the melta and Demolisher cannon certainly coming my way. I deployed as far forward as possible with my Nobs, spreading out the Bikers maximum distance and covering all the Battlewagons with the KFF. The empty Trukk set up in front of the Grots, who started in cover on the objective.

Zach deployed forward too, which surprised me. The LRC deployed to block LoS to the Vindicator and Rhino, while each unit of Bikes went to the flank, so top mid and left mid, with a Dread on his right flank and the Attack Bike dead center.

Turn 1 Orks:

Everything zoomed forward, Bikers spread out. Very uneventful.

Turn 1 SM:

The LRC moved to reveal an angry Vindicator and marines. The Dread dropped in the empty bottom left corner facing the Nob Bikers. Left bikes stood back while the right bikes zoomed around center for a shot on the Trukk. Dread and AB went to center to hit the lead Battlewagon belonging to a shoota mob. Vulkan and his boys jumped out of the Rhino, intend on messing up the Nob Bikers.

The Vindicator, Vulkan, his Tac Squad, the LRC, the left Bikes, and the Dreadnought all fired to full effect on the Nob Bikers. End result? 2 wounds! The right bikes popped the Trukk (twin-linked melta + Trukk - KFF = lol) and the other Dread and Attack Bike bounced off of the KFF trying to shoot a Battlewagon.

Turn 2 Orks:

Fun times! Nob Bikers move to multi-assault the recently dropped Dread and Vulkan's unit. The Nob Battlewagon attempted to zoom through cover to ram the LRC, but I rolled double 1's and it got immobilized >,<>

Nob Bikers burninated and dakka'd the marines, killing all of 2 while the Shoota boyz unloaded into the bikes killing 1. To save the shooting phase the Koptaz blew up the Vindicator, w00t! The other kopta unit killed off a biker.

Nob Bikers ran into assault, murdering 5 marines and the Dreadnought while taking 3 wounds from Vulkan and losing 1 model. Vulkan laughs at the Warboss's 4 wounding hits and passes all his saves. The Koptaz that shot the bikes charged in, lost 1 wound and smushed a biker.

Turn 2 SM:

Not looking good! AB and Dread move to pop the ram-happy BW, Tac Squad drops in next to the grots and LotD drop closer to the middle bottom.

Boom! The Bikes 'splode the Battlewagon facing them (so much for AV14) while the Dread and AB fail to knock out the other shoota wagon, even against side armor! LotD and the new Tac Squad fire on the recently vacated shoota boyz but only kill 4 (thanks KFF!)

Nob Bikers finish off the Tac Squad, Vulkan kills 2 Nobs and he sticks around soaking up all kinds of S10 loving. Bikes and Koptas do 1 each and keep it tied.

Turn 3 Orks:

The shootas on foot move towards the Tac squad, while the only mobile Battlewagon decides it doesn't like the Dreadnought's face and rams it, crushing it under its spiky deff rolla of doom! The Nobs hop out of their wagon (I kind forgot about them and the grot riggers) and head towards the LotD.

The Shootas on foot kill off 2 marines, the shootas in the wagon blow away 4 out of 5 bikes and run the Sergeant off. Nobs Waagh!

2 Koptas charge to help their komrades. Nob bikers lose another model and finally splat Vulkan. Nobs on foot charge the LotD, lose 3 wounds and splatter all but the Sergeant. Shoota boyz multi-charge the Tactical combat squads and wipe them out.

At this point we decided to call it since all my opponent had left were an empty Rhino, running Biker Sergeant, 2 Pods, the Attack Bike, and LotD Sergeant stuck in combat.

So, what did we learn?

1) Vulkan should munch BW spam, but when you make every cover save there's nothing you can do.

2) Never get out of your transport, especially with murderous Nob Bikers running around!

3) TANK SHOCK! It's only 7 models in the Nob Biker unit, shock them until they run or at least push them into better template formation.

4) Up against assaulty mobile armies? Deploy further back, let them come to you and try and take some down as they approach.

5) Dreads fuck Nobs up, before getting smashed by PKs. Use them to snipe the Warboss or do as much damage as possible before 'sploding.

I'd like to get more testing in against more powerful armies before I pass a verdict on my army or Vulkan armies.

Monday, August 24, 2009

"Hey, Ravendove at LO here.Nice blog, looking forward to reading it! What kinda competitive tactics articles will you be doing - just focusing on the Big Three (Orks, Chaos Lash, Vulkan SM)? Or branching out to the lesser races?Cheerio"

Hey thanks for the kudos, hopefully I'll have some more substantial content to offer as time goes on.

Mostly we'll be focusing on the armies we own, or at least play against most often. I have Orks, Marines/Dark Angels, Guard, and Daemons while wodawg has just Tyranids currently (looking at Space pups I hear). I have used pretty much every army at some point though, excluding some of the obscure White Dwarf variant lists and the Inquisition books, so hopefully I can offer insight for most people.

There's definitely more to competitive 40k than just those 3 builds (I don't even consider Orks and Lash all that useful to be honest), I think most of the Codices bring something to the table and can be made viable with the right picks and some solid play behind it.

Now there's an idea, analyzing the "Big Three" and looking for ways to give seemingly less powerful books a fighting chance.

Sunday, August 23, 2009

Orks are my favorite army. I love the models, the conversion potential and the fluff best of all. Unfortunately Orks are in a sorry state competitively, but that won't stop me from throwing them down for a couple laughs.

This is the first of a series we're doing called "Makin' Do" where we try and make the best list out of the models we currently own. If you think I'm shelling out to make my Orks go from sub-par to maybe competitive, you're barking up the wrong money tree brah.

Here's something I came up with recently and I'm looking to start testing it for a couple games.

So, the Nobs mount in the 'Ard Battlewagon and the Grots take the Trukk. Basically it's an attempted sledgehammer of Battlewagons and Nobs using what I currently own. Since Battlewagons and Nob Bikers get downed by similar weapons I'm trying to go heavy on them to hopefully keep them from all getting picked of by their individual counters (see battleforce army).

Nobs and Shootas will stay in their wagon mostly, providing dakka and skorchas and a prickly prospect in combat when their ride goes boom. Plus, I don't really want to move 40+ models across the table.

Grots go joyriding with the wrekkin ball and maybe piss somebody off enough to waste firepower on them.

Deff Koptas flank or scout and go for armor or static units, the buzzsaw is a nice surprise for units like Broadsides who could normally smack them around.

Monday, August 17, 2009

Our mission is to make Warhammer and Warhammer 40k the challenging and fun game it should be.

Competitive 40k is in a sorry state these days. GW shut down its tourney scene, 'Ard Boyz is a joke, the indy scene is plagued by inconsistency and "powergamer" is a dirty word.

Playing competitively is not about being an asshole, you'll find those wherever you go. To me, nothing is more fun than a challenging game between two good players. Obviously not everybody feels that way and I respect that, but competitive play is not the devil.

We aim to bring the level of play up by helping people understand the game. Learning how the game works and how the various armies interact with the core rules and each other is a huge accomplishment. After that, we will try to show everyone what a poweful army looks like and why it's powerful (something you don't see covered often). Once you have an understanding of how the game works and how a strong army is constructed, I heartily encourage people to try things out, find what works for them, and blaze their own trail.

There's an old saying that I feel applies here with a little adaptation:"You can give a man a good army and he'll win one game. You can teach a man to make a good army and he'll win a lot more."

That's what we do here at B&H.

And hey, it's not enough to build a good army, it's also knowing how to use it and how to play in general. We're here for that too.

But wait, there's more! It's no use having everyone playing a higher level of game when tournies are still full of fail ;) Hopefully we can give people ideas to improve their local scene or show enough demand so GW will start to organize their own scene again.

Ultimately though, we're here because we love 40k in all its facets. Not everybody can or wants to field a truly optimized army and that's no problem. I've made do with what I own for the longest time and I'll try and help you make the most of what you've got. We'll also try making inexpensive alternatives to make building up your army not as painful as you think. And it's not just about competitive play. Look for topics on painting, converting, modelling, fluffy stuff, and even homebrew stuff if we can think of something good :P

Friday, August 14, 2009

I've been playing games as far back as I can remember. Peek-a-boo, green army men, Super Nintendo, Pokemon cards, homebrew Lego vs. K'nex games, and so on. I've been playing 40k since the ripe old age of 13, so hopefully I've learned something in that span :P

I've always had a competitive bend when it came to gaming, and for a while I was TFG. Fudging dice, list tailoring, and even downright cheating I would resort to some times. Thankfully I learned the error of my ways and came back hard on the side of fair play and sportsmanship (doesn't mean I won't smash your face in though lol).

I'm your typical nerd. Big into 40k, cartoons, comics, internets, and all that stuff. I like lots of different music, mostly grunge, punk, rock, metal, and rap (none of this hip hop crap the kids like today). I love watching sports because I'm such epic fail at actually playing them, Football, futbol, Basketball, Hockey.

Why did I waste your time with this? Well, everyone's doing it, so I just want to be popular. Really though, I've been a part of the community for a while and I see the same mistakes and assumptions made and I want to help people correct them. If I can do that and have a few laughs along the way, I'll be happy.

So welcome to the blog, read stuff (when we bother to actually post something), write stuff, laugh at stuff, and hopefully learn stuff.

I've been playing then for some where around 6 years so I should know what I'm talking about by now. I also play Dwarves in Fantasy, Magic and Yu-gi-oh. So I plan on helping my fellow Tyranid players, with letting you know whats good about out book and whats not.

However this does not mean I an not willing to critique and look over the lists of other armies as well. Here to help.(W)

Hey, welcome to Blackjack & Hookers. My brother and I have been part of the 40k community for many a year, starting waaaay back in 3rd edition with the Marines vs. Dark Eldar box. Since everyone is making a blog nowadays, we'd figure we'd make our own...

With Blackjack & Hookers!

So, welcome to the blog. If you're here looking for actual blackjack and hookers, sorry to disappoint.